Freshwater Plleeaassee!!!

[ouachita]

What are the chances of getting a freshwater forum for those of us that don' have the priveledge of livin close to the ocean???????? Sorry if i'm incoherent. I'm drunk and my damn ruptured eardrum has had me out of action for @ four weeks. I'm jonesin bad to stone some big cats...

[keyspearfisher]

If you build it they will come!

[ouachita]

tell me how to build it and i'll make her cum!

[gulfdiver]

ouachita,
Where are you from? and why didn't You put it on your profile.
Are You from Arkansas?

[ouachita]

Yes, I am from Arkansas. I didn't put it in my profile cause I was drunk. Sober now and he doc gave me the ok to dive again this weekend!

[Steel Shootin']

If I put up one freshwater catagory, would it be universal from state to state? For example, how similar would fresh water hunting in AK be to fresh water hunting in Nevada? I'd imagine they all have catfish, but I don't really know. Can you shoot a perch....a walleye? :D
Sounds interesting, and educational for us saltwater shooters.

[ouachita]

I believe that you could start out with one general freshwater section and at most eventually have one for up north and one for down south. I think that lakes and cats in N Carolina are similar enough to ones in Arkansas, etc to have one forum. The biggest variation I could imagine from North to South would be dealing with water temp. The biggest question is how many freshwater spearos are lurking here.

We shoot catfish, bass, walleye, and crappie in a season. Some people do shoot smaller bream and other panish but most probably don't. I thought that in a freshwater forum we could share info on building structure, guns(most of ours are short--hard to shoot a 3 or 4 foot gun in 3 feet of vis), etc...It seems that people are more discreet about their spearfishing up here, perhaps due to the ease of access in lakes and the possibility of overshooting the good spots. People also create their own structure in numerous different ways here.

It is hard to get information locally due to the secretiveness of locals. You can't blame them. Not everyone can get to the oil rigs or to the middlegrounds, but everyone up here has access to the same areas. I would be alot more likely to give info to someone on the forum than someone in town who would take evryone and their brother to the good secret spots.

This is an excellent board, and it seems to have grown immensely in the last few months.Its pretty interesting reading about salt water exploits.

[jfg]

Scott,
I agree with ouchita for the most part, well maybe the whole partLOL. Some of us are not allowed to shoot bass or walleye or any gamefish, but we can shoot cats, gars, buffalo,etc.(rough fish). It would definately be interesting to me to know the spearing opportunities around the areas.

We may also learn about freshwater tournaments. I know they used to have them around here. I don't know if they still do or not. I am going to inquire about this from the guy that's going to learn me divin. He supposedly used to win at these freshwater tourny's, quite a bit. I will try to learn more about this soon if it would be any help to you at all.

[Steel Shootin']

I can put a freshwater area up. It'll probably be slow going for a while, but who knows, it might catch on. You guys must have to use smaller diameter shafts to shoot a walleye or a crappie.

[ouachita]

They do have tournaments here also.

[Steel Shootin']

get me any tournament info and i'll put it on the spearboard calendar, as well.

[201proguide]

that would be cool...a freshwater section and all. this will be especially since im going away to college in tennessee....miles away from the west side slingin that im used to :(.

[KJNDIVER]

It would be nice to hear some of those freshwater stories. I am thinking about tryin some freshwater stuff myself soon up on Toledo Bend on the TX-LA border. Hope all I see is big cats and not some fallen astronauts.

[Killer&Griller]

You have at least one guy in Charlotte, NC that would like to see a fresh water catagory. Lets face it, there are catfish, carp, and gar everywhere!!

[Killer&Griller]

Originally posted by Scott
I can put a freshwater area up. It'll probably be slow going for a while, but who knows, it might catch on. You guys must have to use smaller diameter shafts to shoot a walleye or a crappie.


Game fish catagories like bass, brim, crappie, walleye, etc usually can't be speared legally. Most of those are hook and line only. Catfish, carp, shad, gar etc are usually fair game.

[joens]

I would post in a freshwater section from time to time .I do a little of that .
Joens

[ouachita]

Originally posted by Killer&Griller
Game fish catagories like bass, brim, crappie, walleye, etc usually can't be speared legally. Most of those are hook and line only. Catfish, carp, shad, gar etc are usually fair game.

You need to move to Arkansas. We can shoot all of the above on about ten big lakes here from june 15 to march 15.

[jeffe]

Hey, Ouachita, any idea what the State record for a speared Striper might be ?
The line record is above 64 pounds. It was a heavy Female getting ready to spawn.
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission hatched 14 Million of them this year, if I understand right.
At a Striper Seminar I attended, put on by AGFC, I learned that there are nearly 20 striper fishing clubs in the state.
The point being that with that kind of hatch and the level of reported catch, there's gona' be a new record before long.
Geeze, I sure would like to spear one with one of iya diver's drogue chute lift bag setups.

I see them in the old railroad cut just north of Big Blakely Island, but the vis is so low that they are too close to shoot when you see them.
Man, they will scare the beejeezus outta' ya' !
Suddenly they are comming at ya', running about a hundred.
They will never touch you, but you just know that you are going to loose your speargun, mask and all.
Most of them that i'm seeing on Sonar this month are at about 75 / 80 feet, usually in the old river channel.
Are you seeing them in your dive areas ?
This link is to iya's setup.
http://spearboard.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3068

[ouachita]

jeffe,

No, I have not seen any stripers. That rig does look interesting though. I've never seen any speargun records, only rod and reel(the record channel cat being fom Ouachita!)

I have been down in the pockets by the dam. How deep are you seeing them? We have been shooting cats and have seen some walleye at 30-32'. We have not seen anything in two months above 25'. I was thinking of going a little deeper this weekend. Last weekend it seemed really murky down to about 25'.

I heard there were some HUGE blues up by the hatchery at Mountain Harbor last year. Something in the news about them raiding the pens, or escaping or something. I may put some brush out there. I've never dove up there because of the vis, but I can't imagine anything being much worse than last weekend.

[jeffe]

The Big Catfish that were raiding the Hatchery pens are being trapped and moved, they started about two months ago.
Some of the first were put in Lake Greeson.
Here is a link to the article, it is the second article on the page;http://www.agfc.com/education/agfc_ao_073003.html#1-2
They used to get some spearos to dive the pens and get them out of there, but word got out and they had to stop that.
Man, talk about shootin' fish in a barrell !
They told me that the larger catfish would just lay on the bottom, then every once in awhile swim up to catch a fingerling, then settle back to the bottom.
No wonder they would get so big so fast.
I spent nine days at Mountain Harbor thru.the weekend of the Power Boat Association Poker Run, and cast jugs near the area of the fishery.
Even out in the estuary away from the restricted area, we did well.
We had a fish fry each Saturday.
Yeah, vis was not very good last weekend, everything we shot was at or below thermocline, 24' or lower.
I've been seeing them in open water at 75/80 feet. The only time i've seen them any shallower is in the Spring early.
At a Striper seminar the Biologist said that if you catch one by line and bring him up into water that is above 68*, that it's gona' die, so no need to catch and release.
They spawn in the River channels during the third week of April, during the full moon.
They are still a Saltwater Fish and their eggs will go to the bottom and won't hatch.
The difference in the speciffic gravity between f/w and s/w is the reason the eggs don't stay suspended and hatch.
Sorry bout' ramblin' on so.
http://www.geocities.com/westarkscuba/
This is the url for several web pages I built for the Scuba club, lotsa' fish photos n' other stuff.